anarchy works
(2010) by peter gelderloos @PeterGelderloos [Writing and fighting for a world without prisons, borders, clearcuts, or strip mines, a world of care, imagination, and mutual aid] via 159 page kindle version from anarchist library
on the about page [https://petergelderloos.substack.com/about] of his stack:
More than anything, I want to contribute to the conversation on how we get free and not obliterate ourselves trying.
yeah .. that.. huge .. (short findings restate)
notes/quotes:
No more talk about the old days, it’s time for something great.
I want you to get out and make it work… Thom Yorke.. t
5
There are hidden stories all around us,
growing in abandoned villages in the mountains
or vacant lots in the city,
petrifying beneath our feet in the remains
of societies like nothing we’ve known,
whispering to us that things could be different.
But the politician you know is lying to you,
the manager who hires and fires you,
the landlord who evicts you,
the president of the bank that owns your house,
the professor who grades your papers,
the cop who rolls your street,
the reporter who informs you,
the doctor who medicates you,
the husband who beats you,
the mother who spanks you,
the soldier who kills for you,
and the social worker who fits your past and future into a folder in a filing cabinet
all ask
“WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITHOUT US?
It would be anarchy.”
this is ridiculous ness.. and carhart-harris entropy law et al
6
And the daughter who runs away from home,
the bus driver on the picket line,
the veteran who threw back his medal but holds on to his rifle,
the boy saved from suicide by the love of his friends,
the maid who must bow to those who can’t even cook for themselves,
the immigrant hiking across a desert to find her family on the other side,
the kid on his way to prison because he burned down a shopping mall they were building over his childhood dreams,
the neighbor who cleans up the syringes from the vacant lot, hoping someone will turn it into a garden,
the hitchhiker on the open road,
the college dropout who gave up on career and health insurance and sometimes even food so he could write revolutionary poetry for the world,
maybe all of us can feel it:
our bosses and tormentors are afraid of what they would do without us,
and their threat is a promise —
the best parts of our lives are anarchy already.7
intro
Anarchism is the boldest of revolutionary social movements to emerge from the struggle against capitalism — it aims for a world free from all forms of domination and exploitation. But at its heart is a simple and convincing proposition: people know how to live their own lives and organize themselves better than any expert could..t Others cynically claim that people do not know what is in their best interests, that they need a government to protect them, that the ascension of some political party could somehow secure the interests of all members of society. Anarchists counter that decision-making should not be centralized in the hands of any government, but instead power should be decentralized: that is to say, each person should be the center of society, and all should be free to build the networks and associations they need to meet their needs in common with others.
need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be
The education we receive in state-run schools teaches us to doubt our ability to organize ourselves. This leads many to conclude anarchy is impractical and utopian: it would never work. On the contrary, anarchist practice already has a long record, and has often worked quite well. The official history books tell a selective story, glossing over the fact that all the components of an anarchist society have existed at various times, and innumerable stateless societies have thrived for millennia.
How would an anarchist society compare to statist and capitalist societies? It is apparent that hierarchical societies work well according to certain criteria. They tend to be extremely effective at conquering their neighbors and securing vast fortunes for their rulers. On the other hand, as climate change, food and water shortages, market instability, and other global crises intensify, hierarchical models are not proving to be particularly sustainable. The histories in this book show that an anarchist society can do much better at enabling all its members to meet their needs and desires.
what we need is a means to org around legit needs
The many stories, past and present, that demonstrate how anarchy works have been suppressed and distorted because of the revolutionary conclusions we might draw from them. We can live in a society with no bosses, masters, politicians, or bureaucrats; a society with no judges, no police, and no criminals, no rich or poor; a society free of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia; a society in which the wounds from centuries of enslavement, colonialism, and genocide are finally allowed to heal. The only things stopping us are the prisons, programming, and paychecks of the powerful, as well as our own lack of faith in ourselves.
Of course, anarchists do not have to be practical to a fault. If we ever win the freedom to run our own lives, we’ll probably come up with entirely new approaches to organization that improve on these tried and true forms. So let these stories be a starting point, and a challenge.
we have no idea what legit free people are like.. only what whales in sea world are like.. so our stories/visions/orgs are all whalespeak perpetuating same song ness
8
What exactly is anarchism?
Volumes have been written in answer to this question, and millions of people have dedicated their lives to creating, expanding, defining, and fighting for anarchy. There are countless paths to anarchism and countless beginnings: workers in 19th century Europe fighting against capitalism and believing in themselves instead of the ideologies of authoritarian political parties; indigenous peoples fighting colonization and reclaiming their traditional, horizontal cultures; *high school students waking up to the depth of their alienation and unhappiness; mystics from China one thousand years ago or from Europe five hundred years ago, Daoists or Anabaptists, fighting against government and organized religion; women rebelling against the authoritarianism and sexism of the Left. There is no Central Committee giving out membership cards, and no standard doctrine. Anarchy means different things to different people. However, here are some basic principles most anarchists agree on.
*findings:
1\ undisturbed ecosystem (common\ing) can happen
2\ if we create a way to ground the chaos of 8b legit free people
Autonomy and Horizontality: All people deserve the freedom to define and organize themselves on their own terms. Decision-making structures should be horizontal rather than vertical, so no one dominates anyone else; they should foster power to act freely rather than power over others. Anarchism opposes all coercive hierarchies, including capitalism, the state, white supremacy, and patriarchy.
rather.. curiosity over decision making..
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people
Mutual Aid: People should help one another voluntarily; bonds of solidarity and generosity form a stronger social glue than the fear inspired by laws, borders, prisons, and armies. Mutual aid is neither a form of charity nor of zero-sum exchange; both giver and receiver are equal and interchangeable. Since neither holds power over the other, they increase their collective power by creating opportunities to work together.
again.. imagine if we ness.. but no need to even pay attention to any of this aid ness if legit undisturbed ecosystem
Voluntary Association: People should be free to cooperate with whomever they want, however they see fit; likewise, they should be free to refuse any relationship or arrangement they do not judge to be in their interest. Everyone should be able to move freely, both physically and socially. Anarchists oppose borders of all kinds and involuntary categorization by citizenship, gender, or race.
as infra ness.. imagine if we ness.. rather than any form of voluntary compliance
Direct Action: It is more empowering and effective to accomplish goals directly than to rely on authorities or representatives. Free people do not request the changes they want to see in the world; they make those changes.
as if already free ness is part\ial ness.. for (blank)’s sake
Revolution: Today’s entrenched systems of repression cannot be reformed away. Those who hold power in a hierarchical system are the ones who institute reforms, and they generally do so in ways that preserve or even amplify their power. Systems like capitalism and white supremacy are forms of warfare waged by elites; anarchist revolution means fighting to overthrow these elites in order to create a free society.
we need to let go of fighting ness.. ie: gershenfeld something else law.. and org around legit needs (aka: 2 things every soul already craves)
Self-Liberation: “The liberation of the workers is the duty of the workers themselves,” as the old slogan goes. This applies to other groups as well: people must be at the forefront of their own liberation. Freedom cannot be given; it must be taken.
but has to be all of us for the dance to dance..
9
A note on inspiration
It is presumptuous to assign the label “anarchist” to people who have not chosen it;
The examples in this book have been selected from a wide range of times and places — about ninety altogether. Thirty are explicitly anarchist; the rest are all stateless, autonomous, or consciously anti-authoritarian.
It will become apparent throughout this book that anarchy exists in conflict with the state and capitalism. Many of the examples given here were ultimately crushed by police or conquering armies, and it is in large part due to this systematic repression of alternatives that there have not been more examples of anarchy working. This bloody history implies that, to be thoroughgoing and successful, an anarchist revolution would have to be global. Capitalism is a global system, constantly expanding and colonizing every autonomous society it encounters. In the long run, no one community or country can remain anarchist while the rest of the world is capitalist.
huge.. again.. has to be all of us for the dance to dance..
need a legit global re\set
The examples in this book show anarchy working for a period of time, or succeeding in a specific way. *Until capitalism is abolished, all such examples will necessarily be partial. These examples are instructive in their weaknesses as well as their strengths. In addition to providing a picture of people creating communities and meeting their needs without bosses, they raise the question of **what went wrong and how we could do better next time.
*and part\ial ness is killing us.. for (blank)’s sake
**any form of m\a\p will eventually kill us
10
To this end, here are some recurring themes that may be beneficial to reflect on in the course of reading this book:
Isolation: Many anarchist projects work quite well, but only make an impact in the lives of a tiny number of people. What engenders this isolation? What tends to contribute to it, and what can offset it?.. t
has to be all of us for the dance to dance..
humanity needs a leap.. to get back/to simultaneous spontaneity .. simultaneous fittingness.. everyone in sync..
Alliances: In a number of examples, anarchists and other anti-authoritarians were betrayed by supposed allies who sabotaged the possibility of liberation in order to gain power for themselves. Why did anarchists choose these alliances, and what can we learn about what kind of alliances to make today?
today we have means to leap.. so can let go of alliance ing ness
Repression: Autonomous communities and revolutionary activities have been stopped cold by police repression or military invasion time after time. People are intimidated, arrested, tortured, and killed, and the survivors must go into hiding or drop out of the struggle; communities that had once provided support withdraw in order to protect themselves. What actions, strategies, and forms of organization best equip people to survive repression? How can those on the outside provide effective solidarity?
need: gershenfeld something else law et al
Collaboration: Some social movements or radical projects choose to participate in or accommodate themselves to aspects of the present system in order to overcome isolation, be accessible to a greater range of people, or avoid repression. What are the advantages and pitfalls of this approach? Are there ways to overcome isolation or avoid repression without it?
there are today.. but requires a global leap.. for (blank)’s sake
costello screen\service law et al
Temporary gain: Many of the examples in this book no longer exist. Of course, anarchists are not trying to create permanent institutions that take on lives of their own; specific organizations should come to an end when they are no longer helpful. Realizing that, how can we make the most of bubbles of autonomy while they last, and how can they continue to inform us after they have ceased to be? How can a series of temporary spaces and events be linked to create a continuity of struggle and community?
13
1 – human nature
Anarchism challenges the typical Western conception of human nature by envisioning societies built on cooperation, mutual aid, and solidarity between people, rather than competition and survival of the fittest.
Aren’t people naturally selfish?
Everybody has a sense of self-interest, and the capability to act in a selfish way at other people’s expense. But everyone also has a sense of the needs of those around them, and we are all capable of generous and selfless actions. Human survival depends on generosity. The next time someone tells you a communal, anarchistic society could not work because people are naturally selfish, tell him he should withhold food from his children pending payment, do nothing to help his parents have a dignified retirement, never donate to charities, and never help his neighbors or be kind to strangers unless he receives compensation. Would he be able to lead a fulfilling existence, taking the capitalist philosophy to its logical conclusions? Of course not.
One economy developed over and over by humans on every continent has been the gift economy. In this system, if people have more than they need of anything, they give it away. They don’t assign value, they don’t count debts. Everything you don’t use personally can be given as a gift to someone else, and by giving more gifts you inspire more generosity and strengthen the friendships that keep you swimming in gifts too. Many gift economies lasted for thousands of years, and proved much more effective at enabling all of the participants to meet their needs. Capitalism may have drastically increased productivity, but to what end? On one side of your typical capitalist city someone is starving to death while on the other side someone is eating caviar.
if only that’s how we saw gift\ness
14
In a number of towns and cities, anarchists hold Really Really Free Markets — essentially, flea markets without prices. People bring goods they have made or things they don’t need anymore and give them away for free to passersby or other participants. Or, they share useful skills with one another. In one free market in North Carolina, every month:
two hundred or more people from all walks of life gather at the commons in the center of our town. They bring everything from jewelry to firewood to give away, and take whatever they want. There are booths offering bicycle repair, hairstyling, even tarot readings. People leave with full-size bed frames and old computers; if they don’t have a vehicle to transport them, volunteer drivers are available. No money changes hands, no one haggles over the comparative worth of items or services, nobody is ashamed about being in need. Contrary to government ordinances, no fee is paid for the use of this public space, nor is anyone “in charge.” Sometimes a marching band appears; sometimes a puppetry troupe performs, or people line up to take a swing at a piñata. Games and conversations take place around the periphery, and everyone has a plate of warm food and a bag of free groceries.
perhaps let’s try/code money (any form of measuring/accounting) as the planned obsolescence w/ubi as temp placebo.. where legit needs are met w/o money.. till people forget about measuring
22
In one monumental study, War Before Civilization, Lawrence Keeley showed that of an extensive sample of stateless societies, a large number had engaged in aggressive warfare, and a great majority had engaged at the very least in defensive warfare. Only a tiny minority had never encountered war, and a few fled their homelands to avoid war. Keeley was endeavoring to show that people are warlike, even though his results demonstrated that people could choose from a wide range of behaviors including being warlike, avoiding war but still defending against aggression, not knowing war at all, and disliking war so much they would flee their homeland rather than fight. Contrary to his title, Keeley was documenting war after civilization, not “before.” ..t
even deeper.. all data to date is after civilization (aka: sea world ness)
25
What is the factor that allows societies to avoid domination and coercive authority? A study by Christopher Boehm, surveying dozens of egalitarian societies on all continents, including peoples who lived as foragers, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, and pastoralists, found that the common factor is a conscious desire to remain egalitarian: an anti-authoritarian culture. “The primary and most immediate cause of egalitarian behavior is a moralistic determination on the part of a local group’s main political actors that no one of its members should be allowed to dominate the others.”.. t Rather than culture being determined by material conditions, it seems that culture shapes the social structures that reproduce a people’s material conditions.
yeah.. so deeper.. sans any form of m\a\p
gershenfeld something else law et al
30
Their oral cultures are more decentralized and flexible than nearby literate cultures, in which reliance on the written word encourages orthodoxy and gives extra power to those with the resources to keep records..t
lit & num as colonialism et al
need ie: self-talk as data; idiosyncratic jargon; .. via tech w/o judgment; tech as it could be
The Hill People have an interesting relationship with the surrounding states. The people of the valleys view them as “living ancestors,” even though they have formed as a response to the valley civilizations. They are post-state, not pre-state, but the ideology of the state refuses to recognize such a category as “post-state” because the state supposes itself to be the pinnacle of progress. Subjects of the valley civilizations frequently “headed for the hills” to live more freely; however the narratives and mythologies of the Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and other authoritarian civilizations in the centuries leading up to World War II seemed to be designed to prevent their members from “going back” to those they perceived as barbarians. According to some scholars, the Great Wall of China was built as much to keep the Chinese in as the barbarians out; yet in the valley civilizations of China and Southeast Asia, myths, language, and rituals that might explain such cultural defections were suspiciously lacking. Culture was used as another Great Wall to hold these fragile civilizations together. No wonder the “barbarians” gave up written language in favor of a more decentralized oral culture: without written records and a specialized class of scribes, history became common property, rather than a tool for indoctrination.
history ness et al..
31
Capitalism may be capable of feats of production and distribution that have never been possible before, but at the same time this society is tragically unable to keep everyone fed and healthy, and has never existed without gross inequalities, oppression, and environmental devastation. One might argue that members of our society are socially stunted, if not outright primitive, when it comes to being able to cooperate and organize ourselves without authoritarian control.
Western civilization *devotes an immense amount of resources to social control, policing, and cultural production reinforcing capitalist values. The Western idea of human nature functions as a part of this social control, discouraging rebellion against authority. **We are taught from childhood that without authority human life would descend into chaos..t
**carhart-harris entropy law et al
32
rec read: graeber and black
fragments of an anarchist anthropology, abolition of work
33
2 – decisions
Anarchy is the absence of rulers. Free people do not follow orders; they *make their own decisions and come to agreements within their communities, and develop shared means for putting these decisions into practice..t
rather.. free people *listen to curiosity (over decision making).. decision making is unmooring us..
There should be no doubt that human beings can make decisions in non-hierarchical, egalitarian ways. *The majority of human societies have been stateless, and many stateless societies have not been governed by the dictates of some “Big Man,” but by common assemblies using some form of consensus. Numerous consensus-based societies have survived thousands of years, even through European colonialism into the present day, in Africa, Australia, Asia, the Americas, and on the peripheries of Europe.
Groups of friends typically use *informal consensus to decide how to spend time together, organize activities, assist one another, and respond to challenges in their daily lives.
*this is like your.. not pre but post civilization ness.. am thinking legit free people would go with curiosity over decision making to allow for in a space ness
34
In these stateless areas of the Spanish countryside in 1936, peasants organized themselves according to principles of communism, collectivism, or mutualism according to their preferences and local conditions. They formed thousands of collectives, especially in Aragon, Catalunya, and Valencia. Some abolished all money and private property; some organized quota systems to ensure that everyone’s needs were met. The diversity of forms they developed is a testament to the freedom they created themselves. Where once all these villages were mired in the same stifling context of feudalism and developing capitalism, within months of overthrowing government authority and coming together in village assemblies, they gave birth to hundreds of different systems, united by common values like solidarity and self-organization. **And they developed these different forms by holding open assemblies and making decisions about their future in common.
*post.. so not org’d around legit needs
**oi .. diff forms of post ness (aka: of whales)
The town of Magdalena de Pulpis, for example, abolished money completely. One inhabitant reported, “Everyone works and everyone has the right to what he needs free of charge. He simply goes to the store where provisions and all other necessities are supplied. Everything is distributed free with only a notation of what he took.” Recording what everyone took allowed the community to distribute resources equally in times of scarcity, and generally ensured accountability.
has to be sans any form of m\a\p
35
All the collectives, once they had taken control of their villages, organized open mass assemblies to discuss problems and plan how to organize themselves. Decisions were made via voting or consensus. Village assemblies generally met between once a week and once a month; foreign observers surveying them remarked that participation was broad and enthusiastic. Many of the collectivized villages joined with other collectives in order to pool resources, aid one another, and arrange trade. The collectives in Aragon donated hundreds of tons of food to the volunteer militias who were holding back the fascists on the front, and also took in large numbers of refugees who had fled the fascists. The town of Graus, for example, with a population of 2,600, took in and supported 224 refugees, only 20 of whom could work.
oi.. post sea world ness.. time/energy sucks.. not broad/enthusiastic enough.. to to listen to itch-in-the-soul 1st thing everyday for that
37
They would go through a base-building period of two months, in which they would hold meetings and debates to try to build a sense of community, affinity, and political common ground.
By any measure their accomplishment is a triumph for direct action: by disregarding legality or petitioning the powerful for change, over a million people have won themselves land and control over their lives by going out and doing it themselves.
oi.. direct action.. any form of democratic admin.. killing us
38
According to an MST member who worked for several years in one of the most dangerous regions of Brazil, *two months was simply not enough time in most cases to overcome people’s anti-social training and create a real sense of community,.. t but it was much better than the prevalent pattern in the subsequent period.
rather *too long.. as in backwards.. with curiosity over decision making.. have means to leap
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people
39
Next, the participants create an agenda in which they list all the topics they want to talk about. For each topic, they start by sharing information. If a decision needs to be made, they talk it over until they find a point where *everyone’s needs and desires converge. Someone states a proposal that synthesizes everyone’s input, and they vote on it: approve, abstain, or block. If one person is opposed, the group looks for another solution.The decisions may not always be everyone’s first choice, but everyone must **feel comfortable with every decision the group adopts. Throughout this process, the facilitator encourages full participation from everyone and makes sure no one is silenced.
*oi.. public consensus always oppresses someone(s).. have it all backwards.. curiosity over decision making et al
**voluntary compliance ness.. oi
Sometimes, the group is unable to solve a particular problem, but the option of not coming to any decision demonstrates that within consensus, *the health of the group is more important than efficiency.
oi.. decision making is unmooring us.. not *health .. rather cancer
*Consensus precludes the need for enforcement and punishment by making sure that everyone is satisfied beforehand. When we take into account all the work hours a community loses maintaining a police force, which is a **huge drain on resources, ***the hours spent in consensus meetings seem like a good usage of time after all.
oi.. *public consensus always oppresses someone(s).. seat at the table ness et al.. so still need for some time of enforcement/cope\ing ness et al
**what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people.. so need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be
***not.. today we have means to undo all this supposed nonhierarchical hierarchical listening
40
Time and again, spontaneous popular assemblies such as the one created in Oaxaca have proved capable of making sound decisions and coordinating the activities of an *entire population. .
rather *entire pop of whales.. we have no idea what legit free people are like.. am thinking all the things we think we have to decide about.. have meetings about.. would be irrelevant s/distractions/cancerous.. to legit free people..
42
For example, the people in a neighborhood may decide that each different household will take turns cleaning the street. If one household fails to uphold this decision, everybody else on the block has the ability to ask them to fulfill their responsibility. ..if the negligent household has no excuse, and not only do they never clean the streets, they throw their trash in it, their neighbors might hold a general meeting demanding a change in their behavior, or they might take some action like piling all the trash in front of their door. Meanwhile, in their day-to-day interactions individual neighbors might share their criticisms with members of the offending household, or ridicule them, not invite them to joint activities, or glare at them in the streets.
oi.. irrelevant s .. decision making is unmooring us law et al
43
This method is much more flexible, and more liberating, than legalitarian, coercive approaches. .. It also allows transgressors the opportunity to convince others that their actions were justified, thus providing constant challenges to the dominant morality.
In a horizontal society, people enforce decisions according to how enthusiastic they are about those decisions. .. calling out the housemate who does not do dishes or the community that does not contribute to road maintenance. It’s a difficult process, often lacking in many current anarchist projects, but without it group decision-making is a façade and responsibility is vague and unequally shared. Going through this process, people become more empowered and more connected with those around them.
Groups always contain the possibility for conformity and conflict. Authoritarian groups typically avoid conflict by enforcing greater levels of conformity. Pressures to conform also exist in anarchist groups, but without restrictions on human movement, it is easier for people to leave and join other groups or to act or live on their own. Thus, people can choose the levels of conformity and conflict they want to tolerate, and in the process of finding and leaving groups, people change and challenge social norms.
oi.. time/energy sucks: methods, justifying ness, challenging dominance.. et al.. any form of m\a\p.. need: curiosity over decision making
44
No one in the kibbutz had coercive authority. .. Public opinion was the most important factor ensuring social cohesion.. In any case, expulsion was not common in the kibbutzim, because public opinion and group discussion were sufficient to solve most conflicts.
oi.. that is coercive authority.. structural violence.. maté trump law.. via any form of m\a\p
Another vital lesson of the kibbutzim is that building utopian collectives must involve tireless struggle against contemporary authoritarian structures, or they will become part of those structures..t
not if we org around legit/deeper needs that 8bn souls crave
why we need to leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. gershenfeld something else law et al sans takes a lot of work ness..
45
it of hopi using shame and mocking.. There is a world of possibilities more interesting than general assemblies or mediation processes! Artistic conflict resolution encourages new ways of looking at problems, and subverts the possibility of permanent mediators or meeting facilitators gaining power by monopolizing the role of arbiter.
oi.. rather.. and than conflict res.. any form of m\a\p
46
The hypothesis of authoritarian society, that a large, diverse population needs specialized institutions to control decision-making, can be disproven many times over.
wrong/cancerous focus.. ie: (in next sents) brazil.. no one groks legit needs; oaxaca.. resistance as irrelevants..
For most of human history, our societies have been egalitarian and self-organizing, and we have not lost the capability to make and uphold the decisions that affect our lives, or to imagine new and better forms of organizing
oi.. whalespeak
Alternately, if a group develops a decision-making method that is totally original and alien to their society, they may face challenges including newcomers and explaining their method to outsiders — this is sometimes a weakness of infoshops in the US, which employ a well thought-out, idealized form of decision-making complex enough to seem foreign even to many participants.
47
But if there are multiple decision-making structures for different spheres of life, and if they can arise or fade out according to need, none of them can monopolize authority. In this regard, power needs to stay in the streets, in the homes, in the hands of the people who exercise it, in the meeting of people who come together to solve problems.
still time/energy sucks.. need deeper.. ie: curiosity over decision making
rec read: peter’s consensus: a new handbook for grassroots social political and environmental groups
can’t find anywhere
48
3 – economy
All these models are based on the principles of working together to fulfill common needs and rejecting hierarchy of all kinds
always hier archy ness if org-ing around non legit needs
need1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be so we can get back/to an ‘undisturbed ecosystems ..the average individual, species, or population, left to its own devices, behaves in ways that serve and stabilize the whole..’ –Dana Meadows
1\ undisturbed ecosystem (common\ing) can happen
2\ if we create a way to ground the chaos of 8b legit free people
49
A similarly organized commune in a world without capitalism would not face these same problems
actually it would.. eventually.. if any form of m\a\p then same song
In Barcelona, for example, as recently as 2008 there were over forty occupied social centers and at least two hundred squatted houses.. For example the author of this book, who has lived within this network for two years, has survived for much of that time on less than one euro a day.
50
They provide for many of their collective needs besides housing. Some social centers host bicycle repair workshops, enabling people to repair or build their own bicycles, using old parts. Others offer carpentry workshops, self-defense and yoga workshops, natural healing workshops, libraries, gardens, communal meals, art and theater groups, language classes, alternative media and counterinformation, music shows, movies, computer labs where people can use the internet and learn email security or host their own websites, and solidarity events to deal with the inevitable repression. Nearly all of these services are provided absolutely free. There is no exchange — one group organizes to provide a service to everyone, and the entire social network benefits.
sounds like city sketchup ness et al
With an astounding amount of initiative in such a passive society, squatters regularly get the idea to organize a communal meal or a bicycle repair shop or a weekly movie showing, *they talk with friends and friends of friends until they have enough people and resources to make their idea a reality,..t and then they spread the word or put up posters and hope as many people as possible will come and partake. To a capitalist mentality, they are avidly inviting people to rob them, but the squatters never stop to question activities that don’t put money in their pockets. It is evident that they have created a new form of wealth, and sharing what they make themselves clearly makes them richer.
*huge ie’s but imagine deeper
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people
need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be
The surrounding neighborhoods also become richer, as the squatters take the initiative to create projects much quicker than the local government could.
actually have means for a global leap
The result is that in cities such as Barcelona, people can spend the majority of their time and meet the majority of their needs — from housing to entertainment — within this squatters’ social network, without labor and almost without money. Of course not everything can be stolen (not yet), and the squatters are still compelled to sell their labor to pay for things like medical care and court costs. But for many people the exceptional nature of those things that cannot be self-produced, scavenged, or stolen, the outrage of having to sell valuable moments of one’s life to work for some corporation, can have the effect of increasing the level of conflict with capitalism.
barcelona ness.. and perhaps let’s try/code money (any form of measuring/accounting) as the planned obsolescence w/ubi as temp placebo.. where legit needs are met w/o money.. till people forget about measuring
One potential pitfall of any movement powerful enough to create an alternative to capitalism is that its participants can easily become complacent living in their bubble of autonomy and lose the will to fight for the total abolition of capitalism. Squatting itself can easily become a ritual, and in Barcelona the movement as a whole has not applied the same creativity to resistance and attack as it has to many of the practical aspects of fixing up houses and finding subsistence with little or no money. The self-sustaining nature of the network of squatters, the immediate presence of freedom, initiative, pleasure, independence, and community in their lives have by no means destroyed capitalism, but they do reveal it to be a walking corpse, with nothing but the police, in the end, preventing it for going extinct and being replaced by far superior forms of living.
51
Hundreds of factories abandoned by their owners were occupied by workers, who resumed production so they could continue to feed their families. The more radical of these worker-occupied factories equalized wages and shared managerial duties among all workers. They made decisions in open meetings, and some workers taught themselves tasks such as accounting. To ensure that a new managerial class did not arise, some factories rotated managerial tasks, or required that people in managerial roles still work on the factory floor and perform the accounting, marketing, and other tasks after hours.
great opp.. taken over by whalespeak
One of the most famous, the Zanon ceramics factory located in southern Argentina, was shut down by the owner in 2001 and occupied by its workers the following January. They began running the factory with an open assembly and commissions made up of workers to manage Sales, Administration, Planning, Security, Hygiene and Sanitation, Purchasing, Production, Diffusion, and Press.
again.. irrelevant s/whalespeaks
52
In July 2001, the workers of the El Tigre supermarket in Rosario, Argentina, occupied their workplace. The owner had shut it down two months earlier and declared bankruptcy, still owing his employees months in wages. After fruitless protesting, the workers opened El Tigre and began running it themselves through an assembly that allowed all workers a part in decision-making. In a spirit of solidarity they lowered prices and began selling fruit and vegetables from a local farmers’ cooperative and products made in other occupied factories. They also used part of their space to open a cultural center for the neighborhood, housing political talks, student groups, theater and yoga workshops, puppet shows, a café, and a library. In 2003, El Tigre’s cultural center held the national meeting of reclaimed businesses, attended by 1,500 people. Maria, one collective member, said of her experience: “Three years ago, if someone had told me we’d be able to run this place I’d never have believed them… I believed we needed bosses to tell us what to do, now I realize that together we can do it better than them.”
53
Gore Associates, based in Delaware, is the billion dollar high-tech firm that produces waterproof Gore-Tex fabric, special insulation for computer cables, and parts for the medical, automobile, and semiconductor industries.
An important factor in their success is adherence to what some academics call the Rule of 150.
Skeptics often dismiss the anarchistic example of small-scale “primitive” societies by arguing that it’s no longer possible to organize on such a small scale, given the huge population. But there is nothing to stop a large society for organizing itself in many smaller units. Small-scale organization is eminently possible..t
actually global ginormous/small scale if we org around legit needs
54
During the rebellion in Oaxaca in 2006, people without prior experience organized themselves to run occupied radio and television stations. They were motivated by the social need for free means of communication
57
In the richest country in the world, millions have no access to healthcare, including this author, and every year hundreds of thousands of people die from preventable or treatable causes. (also talked trash – dirty jobs and living with elderly rather than rest homes)
58
Education has long been a priority of anarchist and other revolutionary movements around the world
need it to not be a priority.. otherwise we keep falling back into people telling other people what to do mode.. need to just trust us
59
Most of this, people teach themselves, or learn among friends and peers — that is to say, the school of life is already anarchistic.
In response, a number of anarchist theorists set out to *design non-hierarchical schools in which teachers would serve as aides helping the students learn and explore their **chosen subjects
*contradictory.. because **spinach or rock ness et al
60
the MST claims to have taught over 50,000 landless workers how to read
read ness et al.. (not trust if think need to teach it)
even enabling them to design their own courses.
oi.. still ie of people telling other people what to do .. package deal ness et al
61
They emphasize in all these forms of education that it is the responsibility of the students to use what they learn for their community and not for individual profit.
oi.. responsibility ness as people telling other people what to do.. red flags ness
people are taught how to teach
oi oi oi
62
The demands of freedom confront us with a much heavier choice than simply changing our decision-making structures. We will have to physically disassemble much of the world we live in and build it anew.. t Freedom, as well as the ecological balance of the planet and thus our very survival, is incompatible with nuclear energy, reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and coal, and a car culture which estranges public space and fosters a system of exchange where most goods are not produced locally.
rather.. hari rat park law et al
This transformation will require a great deal of inventiveness.. t; thus the relevant question becomes, will an anarchist social movement and society be inventive enough to carry out this transformation? I think the answer is yes. After all, the most useful tools in human history were invented before government and capitalism came about.
ie: tech as it could be (to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature)
Capitalist competition dictates that every few years all the old gadgets become obsolete as new ones are invented, so people have to throw the old ones away and buy new ones — at great detriment to the environment. Because of this “planned obsolescence,” few inventions tend to be well made or fully thought-out in the first place, since they’re destined for the trash from the beginning.
perhaps let’s try/code money (any form of measuring/accounting) as the planned obsolescence w/ubi as temp placebo.. where legit needs are met w/o money.. till people forget about measuring
64
heading: how will exchange work
question as distraction/cancer.. because frames thinking in terms of whalespeak (like all rest of headings – ie: what about ed; who will take out trash; et al)
65
Rather than giving up, remaining members developed a number of solutions to the problems they had encountered, such as limiting membership to producers so the network is only used by those who contribute to it.
Contemporary anarchists in the US and Europe are experimenting with other forms of distribution that transcend exchange. One popular anarchist project is the “free store” or “give-away shop.” Free stores serve as a collection point for donated or scavenged items that people no longer need, including clothes, food, furniture, books, music, even the occasional refrigerator, television, or car. Patrons are free to browse through the store and take whatever they need. Many accustomed to a capitalist economy who come into a free store are perplexed by how it could possibly work. Having been raised with a scarcity mentality, they assume that since people profit by taking stuff and do not profit by donating, a free store would quickly empty out. However this is rarely the case. Countless free stores operate sustainably, and most are overflowing with goods. From Harrisonburg, Virginia, to Barcelona, Catalunya, hundreds of free stores defy capitalist logic on a daily basis. The Weggeefwinkel, Giveaway Shop, in Groningen, Netherlands, has operated out of squatted buildings for over three years, opening twice a week to give away free clothes, books, furniture, and other items. Other free stores hold fundraisers if they have to pay rent, which would not be an issue in a completely anarchist society. Free stores are an important resource for impoverished people, who either are denied a job by the whims of the free market or who work a job, or two or three, and still can’t afford clothes for their kids.
A more high-tech example of free exchange is the relatively mainstream and wildly successful Freecycle Network. Freecycle is a global network originally formed by an environmental nonprofit group to promote giving away items that might otherwise end up in the trash. As of this writing they have over 4 million members grouped into 4200 local chapters, spread through 50 countries. Using a website to post items wanted or items available to give away, people have circulated prodigious quantities of clothing, furniture, toys, artwork, tools, bicycles, cars, and countless other goods. One of the rules of Freecycle is that everything has to be free, neither bartered nor sold. Freecycle is not a centrally controlled organization; local chapters set themselves up based on the common model, and use the website on which the model is based.
do this
69
There are a number of methods that could prevent institutions such as labor banks from facilitating the return of capitalism, though unfortunately the onslaught of totalitarianism from both the fascists and Communists deprived Spanish anarchists of the chance to develop them. These might include rotating and mixing tasks to prevent the emergence of a new managing class, developing fragmented structures that cannot be controlled at a central or national level, promoting as much decentralization and simplicity as possible, and maintaining a firm tradition that common resources and instruments of social wealth are never for sale.
But as long as money is a central fact of human existence, myriad human activities are reduced to quantitative values and value can be massed as power, and thus alienated from the activity that created it: in other words, it can become capital. Naturally anarchists do not agree on how to strike a balance between practicality and perfection, or how deep to cut in order to root out capitalism, but studying all the possibilities, including those that might be doomed to failure or worse, can only help.
70
Many people will probably return to the land as industrial agriculture decreases or ceases, to be replaced by sustainable agriculture — or “permaculture” — which can support a higher population density in rural areas.
permaculture ness
In such a period, it might be necessary to make new social arrangements in a hurry, but it won’t be the first time anarchists have made a town or city from scratch.
today we have the means for a global leap.. if we listen deep enough to org around legit needs
75
Meeting our needs without keeping count.. t
will never meet/hear/grok legit needs as long as we keep count.. any form of m\a\p
Capitalism has produced some amazing gadgets, but the military and the police are almost always the first to use new technologies, and often the wealthiest people are the only ones who benefit from them. Capitalism has produced undreamed of wealth, but it is hoarded by parasites who did not produce it and who lord over the slaves and wage laborers who created it. Competition may seem to be a useful principle for encouraging efficiency — but efficiency for what purpose? Beneath the mythology it has created, capitalism is not actually a competitive system. Workers are divided and played against each other, while the elite cooperate to maintain their subjection.
76
Capitalism has failed horribly at meeting people’s needs and arranging a fair distribution of goods. Throughout the world, millions die from treatable diseases because they cannot afford the medicine that would save them, and people starve to death while their countries export cash crops. Under capitalism, everything is for sale — culture is a commodity that can be manipulated to sell lingerie or skin cream, nature is a resource to be sucked dry and destroyed for profit. People must sell their time and energy to the owning class in order to buy back a fraction of what they produce. This is a deeply rooted system that shapes our values and relationships and defies most attempts to abolish it.
not about ‘arranging distribution of goods’.. it’s about grokking the center of problem law.. ie: problem deep enough.. about legit needs
77
On one hand, people and their desires are taken out of the equation, while on the other hand all values — pleasure, usefulness, inspiration — are absorbed into a quantitative value, and money itself becomes a symbol for all these other values.
again.. perhaps let’s try/code money (any form of measuring/accounting) as the planned obsolescence w/ubi as temp placebo.. where legit needs are met w/o money.. till people forget about measuring.. graeber violence/quantification law et al.. money\less ness.. wilson money law.. et al
But it is a worthwhile challenge to do away with exchange and currency altogether.
yeah that.. marsh exchange law et al.. graeber exchange law et al.. wilson money law
The world is bountiful *enough to provide for everyone’s needs. Scarcity is a dangerous illusion that functions as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Once people stop giving and begin **hoarding, collective wealth declines. If we overcome the fear of scarcity, scarcity itself disappears.
*enough ness et al
**testart storage law et al
78
rec reading: kropotkin.. fields.. mauss.. gift
fields factories and workshops.. gift\ness..
79
4. Environment
Some people oppose capitalism on environmental grounds, but think some sort of state is necessary to prevent ecocide. But the state is itself a tool for the exploitation of nature.
rec reading: bookchin.. ecology of freedom
89
5. Crime
Prison is the institution that most concretely symbolizes domination. Anarchists wish to create a society that can protect itself and resolve internal problems without police, judges, or prisons; a society that does not view its problems in terms of good and evil, permitted and prohibited, law-abiders and criminals.
incarceration ness et al.. hari rat park law via gershenfeld something else law et al
Historically, police did not develop out of a social necessity to protect people from rising crime. In the United States, modern police forces arose at a time when crime was already diminishing. Rather, the institution of police emerged as a means to give the ruling class greater control over the population and expand the state’s monopoly on the resolution of social conflict. This was not a response to crime or an attempt to solve it; on the contrary, it coincided with the creation of new forms of crime.
structural violence et al
90
The police and prisons are systems of control that preserve social inequalities, spread fear and resentment, exclude and alienate whole communities, and exercise extreme violence against the most oppressed sectors of society.
any form of m\a\p as police ness (as structural violence).. police ness as people telling other people what to do et al
In an *empowered society, people do not need written laws; they have the power to **determine whether someone is preventing them from fulfilling their needs, and can call on their peers for help resolving conflicts.
need first/most.. a legit *free society.. nothing to do with power.. then ie: **’determine whether someone is preventing from fulfilling needs’.. if we org around legit needs.. the dance dances w/o determining ness.. rendering the determining ness et al.. irrelevant s/distractions/cancers
left off 91
91
This context of solidarity, free food, and empowerment of the common person played a role in drying up crime at its source.
gershenfeld something else law et al
but source is even deeper than food and empowerment.. need to org around legit needs
Marginalized people gained opportunities for community involvement, decision-making, and social inclusion that were denied to them by the capitalist regime.
yeah see.. this is what creates/perpetuates myth of tragedy and lord ness (aka: whalespeak as part of the cancer).. ie: dave’s campfire analogy; decision making is unmooring us law; brown belonging law; et al
92
Different people had *different ideas on what **long-term solutions to institute, and as the rebellion in Oaxaca was politically very diverse, ***not all these ideas were revolutionary; some people wanted to hand robbers or assaulters over to the courts, though it was widely believed that the government released all law-breakers and encouraged them to go back and commit more anti-social crimes.
*what we found in our initial questioning.. leading to short findings restate.. have to listen/go deep enough to find something everyone resonates with.. something that is the same idea for everyone
**ie: maté basic needs via 2 conversations as infra
***rather.. none have been to date
93
*Currently, the media is waging a campaign of fear, increasing coverage of antisocial crime and trying to conflate these crimes with the presence of autonomous areas. Crime is a tool of the state, used to scare people, isolate people, and make government seem necessary. But government is nothing but a protection racket. The state is a mafia that has won control over society, and the law is the codification of everything they have stolen from us.
*currently? or always? structural violence et al.. graeber man with stick law et al
The Rotuman are a traditionally stateless people who live on the island of Rotuma in the South Pacific, north of Fiji. According to anthropologist Alan Howard, members of this sedentary society are *socialized not to be violent. Cultural norms promote respectful and gentle behavior towards children. Physical punishment is extremely rare, and almost never intended to actually hurt the misbehaving child. Instead, **Rotuman adults use shame instead of punishment, a strategy that raises children with a high degree of social sensitivity. ***Adults will especially shame children who act like bullies, and in their own conflicts adults try very hard not to make others angry. From Howard’s perspective as an outsider from the more authoritarian West, children are given “an ****astonishing degree of autonomy” and the principle of personal autonomy extends throughout the society: “
*yeah.. not.. any form of m\a\p still ie of violence.. ie: *shame as violence.. oi.. ***what a phrase.. ha.. shame = bullying.. oi.. ****not astonishing.. astonishing that we think that has any autonomy/freedom.. we have no idea what legit free people are like
Members maintain their standing and status in the group by being accountable, being sensitive to group opinion, and resolving conflicts.
oi.. total whalespeak.. huge red flags we’re doing it/life wrong.. perpetuate/ing myth of tragedy and lord ness
public consensus always oppresses someone(s)
94
The prisoners won their first demand: the prison superintendent was forced to resign. Quickly they won additional demands for expanded visiting rights, furlough, self-organized programs, review and release of those in segregation, and civilian observers inside the prison. In exchange, they cleaned up the prison, and brought what the guards never had: peace.
oh my.. resonations to 22.. downsize ness to peace..?
In protest of their loss of control, the guards walked off the job. They thought this act would prove how necessary they were, but embarrassingly for them, it had the exact opposite effect. For two months, the prisoners ran the prison themselves. For much of that time, the guards were not present within the cell blocks, though state police controlled the prison perimeter to prevent escapes. Civilian observers were inside the prison twenty-four hours a day, but they were trained not to intervene; their role was to document the situation, talk with prisoners, and prevent violence from guards who sometimes entered the prison. One observer recounted:
The atmosphere was so relaxed — not at all what I expected. I find that my own thinking has been so conditioned by society and the media. These men are not animals, they are not dangerous maniacs. I found my own fears were really groundless.
bird uncaged.. khan filling the gaps law.. et al (gb)
95
Some fear that in a society without authorities, the strongest people *would run amok, taking and doing whatever they wanted. Never mind that this describes what generally goes on in societies with government! This fear derives from the statist myth that we are all **isolated.
**thurman interconnectedness law: when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman ..
gershenfeld something else law et al
96
A person who shatters the social peace, disrespects another person’s needs, and acts in an authoritarian, bullying way can be defeated or kicked out by neighbors working together to restore the peace.
oi.. that will never work.. ie: who decides what degree/type is bullying.. need something/means that everyone craves.. that deep ie:: gershenfeld something else law; pearson unconditional law; none of us are free; et al
The worst bullying has come from the police.. It is by no means the first time police or other agents of the state have spread addictive drugs while suppressing soft or hallucinogenic drugs; in fact this seems universally to be a part of police strategies for repression.
crazywise (doc).. hari rat park law.. josh ovalle.. et al..
In this context, those who want resolution often have to seek it outside the courts. A military dictatorship seized power in Argentina in 1976 and waged a “Dirty War” against leftists, torturing and killing 30,000 people; the officers responsible for the torture and executions were pardoned by the democratic government that succeeded the dictatorship.
everywhere.. jeremy scahill – dirty wars et al
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who began gathering to demand an end to the disappearances and to know what happened to their children, were an important social force in ending the reign of terror.
97
They sing, chant, and make music for hours, shaming the torturer and letting everyone know what he has done; the crowd may attack his house with paint bombs. Despite a justice system that protects the powerful, the social movements of Argentina have organized collectively to shame and isolate the very worst bullies.
this will never get us to the dance.. has to be something for all of us.. or will be for none of us..
What’s to stop someone from killing people?. t
gershenfeld something else law
killing .. as in any form of m\a\p.. that deep
*What social attributes go along with the more peaceful way of life? Unlike their more violent neighbors, the La Paz Zapotec do not beat children; accordingly, children see less violence and use less violence in their play. Similarly, **wife-beating is rare and not considered acceptable; women are considered equal to men, and enjoy an autonomous economic activity that is important to the life of the community so they are not dependent on men.
*this: missing pieces .. not **this: the time/energy sucking/distracting/intoxicating whalespeak jargon of.. acceptable ness; equal to men ness; econ activity; .. et al
A further similarity is a reliance on *mediation rather than punishment, police, or prisons to solve disputes. Norway does have police and a prison system, but compared with most states there is a high reliance on conflict mediation mechanisms not unlike those that flourish in peaceful, stateless societies. Most civil disputes in Norway must be brought before mediators before they can be taken to court, and **thousands of criminal cases are taken to mediators as well. In 2001, ***agreement was reached in 89% of the mediations
*seat at the table ness is a distraction.. **huge time/energy suck.. ***public consensus always oppresses someone(s).. not healing (roots of)
According to their traditions, if a person committed a murder, the community would *forgive him and make him reconcile with the family of the victim. If that person commits another murder, **he would be killed — usually by members of his own family group, so there would be no bad blood or cause for feud.
*to forgive.. have to have mindset of cast first stone ness.. am thinking that if people are legit free.. ideas like forgiveness and thank you ness would be irrelevant s
**oi..
The state’s punitive methods for dealing with crime make things worse, not better. The restorative methods for responding to social harm that are used in many stateless societies open new possibilities for escaping the cycles of abuse, punishment, and harm that are all too familiar to many of us.
not if ie: casting stones and killing
thurman interconnectedness law: when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman
pearson unconditional law; your own song ness; et al
Sexual and domestic violence are rampant in our society, and even in the absence of government and capitalism these forms of violence *will continue unless they are specifically addressed. Currently, many forms of sexual and domestic violence are commonly tolerated; some are even subtly encouraged by Hollywood, churches, and other mainstream institutions. Hollywood often sexualizes rape and, along with other corporate media and most major religions, **glorifies female passivity and servility. In the discourse these institutions influence, the severe problem of spousal rape is ignored, and as a result many people even believe that a husband cannot rape a wife because they are joined in a contractual sexual union.
*actually.. the addressing ness is part of their perpetuation.. whether we see it as *glorifying or whatever.. it distracts us from healing (roots of).. again.. any form of m\a\p as rape/killing et al
News media and Hollywood movies regularly portray rape as an act committed by a stranger — especially a poor, non-white stranger. In this version, a woman’s only hope is to be protected by the police or a boyfriend. But in fact, the vast majority of rapes are committed by boyfriends, friends, and family members, in situations that fall in *the gray area between the mainstream definitions of consent and force. More frequently, Hollywood ignores the problems of rape, abuse, and domestic violence altogether, while perpetuating the myth of love at first sight. In this **myth, the man wins over the woman and the two fulfill all of each other’s emotional and sexual needs, making a perfect match without having to talk about consent, work on communication, or navigate emotional and sexual boundaries.
*no grey.. it’s all black (same song)
**thinking that if everyone was legit free.. the myth is that we would need (still flap on about): consent ness; takes a lot of work ness; boundaries ness;..
99
Seeking *help may only make things worse, because at no point does the legal system allow them to regain control over their lives, even though it is this control that survivors of abuse most need.
*help\ing ness
if they depend economically on their abusers, as is often the case, they may choose not to report the crime for fear of ending up homeless, poor, or in foster care.
unauthorized home less ness et al
In contrast, many stateless societies have used a needs-based paradigm..t
and yet this is why we haven’t yet seen legit free people.. why we keep myth of tragedy and lord ing (so our deepest problem).. we can’t see/grok what our legit needs are.. need 1st/most: means to undo our hierarchical listening to self/others/nature ie: tech as it could be
This paradigm frames these forms of violence as social harm, thus focusing on the needs of the survivor to heal and the need of the offender to become a healthy person who can relate with the broader community..t
costello screen\service law unless hari addiction law because krishnamurti measure law
100
The purpose of the Navajo process is to meet the needs of those who come to the peacemaker and to find the *root of the problem.. t
what if the root of the problem is the same for everyone.. again.. not listening deep enough to hear/grok that.. let’s listen that deep so we can org around legit needs
The peacemakers solve this by “talking things out” and helping the person who harmed to reconnect with his community and regain the support and groundedness he needs to act in a healthy way.
again.. costello screen\service law unless hari addiction law because krishnamurti measure law
102
The notion of justice is perhaps the most dangerous product of authoritarian psychology. The state’s worst abuses occur in its prisons, its inquisitions, its forced corrections and rehabilitations.
judge\ment ness.. any form of m\a\p
State justice begins with a refusal to engage with human needs. Human needs are dynamic and can only be fully understood by those who experience them.
but not even by individual today.. need detox.. need to get out of sea world.. out of rat cage.. first.. so we can hear/see/grok legit needs
The notion of justice and the social relations it implies are inherently authoritarian.. The justice system prevents all this. It hoards control, alienates entire communities, and obstructs examination of the roots of problems, preserving the status quo above all.
106
6 – revolution
(somewhere between 106 & 116)
The warrior societies played an important role in the indigenous organization of warfare, but women’s societies were vital as well.
oi
116
Political parties, after all, are inherently authoritarian institutions.
121
Though they had plenty to keep them busy on the homefront, setting up schools, collectivizing land and factories, reorganizing social life, the anarchists raised and trained volunteer militias to fight on the front.
how is this anarchist (sans rulers) ness?.. oi.. so many red flags.. (ie: no train; aziz let go law; any form of m\a\p as ruling)
124
All people are capable of self-organization, whether or not they are experienced in political work. Of course, taking control of our lives *won’t be easy at first, but it is imminently possible. In most cases, people take the **obvious approach, spontaneously holding large, open meetings with their neighbors, co-workers, or comrades on the barricades to figure out what needs to be done. In some cases, society is organized through ***pre-existing revolutionary organizations.
oi oi oi – all the red flags (we’re doing it/life wrong).. *takes a lot of work **obvious to have meetings first..ness.. is why we have not yet gotten to global equity.. perhaps we have it all backwards.. rather.. imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. ***all revolutions/data/history ness to date is non legit (like from whales in sea world).. only perpetuating the cancer of sea world
Within the assemblies, factory occupations, and other organizations, they practiced consensus and encouraged horizontal organizing. In the words of one activist involved in establishing alternative social structures in his neighborhood, where unemployment reached 80%: “We are building power, not taking it.”
assemblies, consensus.. not horizontal.. not alt..
125
Soon the neighborhood assembly would be holding weekly meetings “on community issues but also on topics such as the external debt, war, and free trade” as well as “how they could work together and how they saw the future.” Many social centers would eventually offer:
an info space and perhaps computers, books, and various workshops on yoga, self defence, languages, and basic skills. Many also have community gardens, run after school kids’ clubs and adult education classes, put on social and cultural events, cook food collectively, and mobilise politically for themselves and in support of the piqueteros and reclaimed factories.. It was a whole slice of Argentinean society standing in a circle on a street corner under the orange glow of sodium lights, passing around a brand new megaphone and discussing how to take back control of their lives
not free.. any form of m\a\p
126
The combination of spontaneous organization, open assemblies, and committees with a specific organizational focus left a deep impression, showing how quickly a society can change itself once it breaks with the habit of obedience to the government..t
even more so today since we have the means to leapfrog to a nother way .. legit quickly.. for (blank)’s sake.. rather than above .. which are still ie’s of obedience to govt.. if still talking whalespeak.. still trying to ‘replace’ things.. ie: org schools/econ/defense.. rather than something legit diff
Hungary did not have a large anarchist movement at the time, but the popularity of the various councils shows *how contagious anarchistic ideas are once people decide to organize themselves. And their ability to keep the country running and defeat the first invasion of the Red Army shows the effectiveness of these organizational forms. There was no need for a complex institutional blueprint to be in place before people **left their authoritarian government behind. All they needed was the determination to come together in ***open meetings to decide their futures, and the trust in themselves that they could make it work, even if at first it was unclear how.
*imagine if we legit let go enough to see.. otherwise.. **not leaving authoritairianism/govtism behind
***again.. backwards.. need to trust itch-in-8bn-souls first.. otherwise.. the dance won’t dance
How will reparations for past oppressions be worked out?
this is why we believe in takes a lot of work ness.. so energy sucking
If government and capitalism disappeared overnight, people would still be divided. Legacies of oppression generally determine where we live; our access to land, water, a clean environment, and necessary infrastructure; and the level of violence and trauma in our communities.
huge.. this is why hari rat park law et al..
which today.. we have the means to leap to
127
An essential part of an anarchist revolution is global solidarity.
which we’ve not yet ever had.. because that means all of us (so would be no protesting, fighting, defending, et al).. need to org around 2 things we all crave
128
Fortunately, the act of rebelling against an authoritarian, capitalist culture can itself popularize anti-authoritarian values.
rebelling (any form of m\a\p) isn’t anti authoritarian
Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber writes of the Tsimihety in Madagascar, who rebelled and removed themselves from the Maroansetra dynasty. Even over a century after this rebellion, the Tsimihety “are marked by resolutely egalitarian social organization and practices,” to such an extent that it defines their very identity. The new name the tribe chose for themselves, Tsimihety, means “those who do not cut their hair,” in reference to the custom of subjects of the Maroansetra to cut their hair as a sign of submission.
129
In the cities of Catalunya, social restrictions on women lessened considerably. For the first time in Spain, women could walk alone on the streets without a chaperon — not to mention that many were walking down the streets wearing militia uniforms and carrying guns. Anarchist women like Lucia Sanchez Saornil wrote about how empowering it was for them to change the culture that had oppressed them. Male observers from George Orwell to Franz Borkenau remarked on the changed conditions of women in Spain.
oi oi oi ..
Aside from these activities, the piqueteros also self-organized an anti-capitalist economy, including schools, media groups, clothing give-away shops, bakeries, clinics, and groups to fix up people’s houses and build infrastructure such as sewage systems.
mid sent 2fp.. aside from.. bottom last p thru top 130.. oi ed.. takein over male ness et al
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The shared ideal among the piqueteros included a *firm commitment to non-hierarchical forms of organization and participation by all members, young and old, in their discussions and activities. Women were often the first to go to the picket lines, and came to hold considerable power within the piquetero movement. Within these autonomous organizations, many women gained the **opportunity to participate in large-scale decision-making or take on other male-dominated roles for the first time in their lives. At the particular bakery holding the workshop described above, a young woman was in charge of security, another traditionally male role.
not legit *this if **this
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At Aritzkuren as at other autonomous villages throughout the world, life is both laborious and relaxed. The residents must build all their infrastructure themselves and create most of the things they need with their own hands, so there is *plenty of work to do. People **get up in the morning and work on their own projects, or else everyone comes together for a collective effort decided on at a previous meeting. Following a huge lunch which one person cooks for everyone on a rotating basis, people have the whole afternoon to relax, read, go into town, work in the garden, or fix up a building. Some days, nobody works at all; if one person decides to skip a day, there are no recriminations, because ***there are meetings at which to make sure responsibilities are evenly distributed. In this context, characterized by a close connection to nature, inviolable individual freedom mixed with a collective social life, and the blurring of work and pleasure, the people of Aritzkuren have created not only a new lifestyle, but an ethos ****compatible with living in an anarchist society.
*kilpi work law and takes a lot of work ness.. messes with our art/being.. sounds like a justification for living free
**let’s just focus on that..
ie: imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness..
***oi.. then not legit free.. then perpetuating myth of tragedy and lord ness
****not if anarchist ness means no rules/authorities..
*The school they are building at Aritzkuren is a powerful symbol of this. A number of children live at Aritzkuren and the other villages. Their environment already provides a wealth of learning opportunities, but there is **much desire for a formal educational setting and a chance to employ alternative teaching methods in a project that can be accessible to children from the entire region.
*oi oi oi.. why can’t we let go.. socrates supposed to law et al.. killing us
**ugh.. total whalespeak
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*A new ethos can come about in the process of resisting, as we find common cause with strangers and discover our own powers. It can also be nourished by the environments we build for ourselves. A truly liberating ethos is not just a new set of values, but a new approach to the relationship between the individual and her culture; it requires that people shift from being passive recipients of culture to participants in its creation and reinterpretation. In this sense, the revolutionary struggle against hierarchy never ends, but continues from one generation to the next.
*am thinking.. in the process of resisting.. will just perpetuate same song ness
*To be successful, revolution must occur on many fronts at once. It won’t work to abolish capitalism while leaving the state or patriarchy untouched. A successful revolution must be composed of many revolutions, accomplished by different people using different strategies, respecting each another’s autonomy and building solidarity. **This will not happen overnight, but in the course of a series of conflicts that build on each other.
*yeah.. like all the fronts.. small is {ginormous} beautiful et al.. gillis on small scale et al
**if we 1\ set ourselves legit free.. and 2\ trust us.. it can happen overnight.. that’s why i do what i do..
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7 – neighboring societies
138
An anti-authoritarian rebellion in one corner of the world might even be able to defend itself from the government it is overthrowing and several neighboring governments, but not from all the governments of the entire world. *Global repression must be met with global resistance. Fortunately, as capital globalizes, popular networks do as well; our ability to form worldwide movements and act quickly in solidarity with a struggle on the other side of the planet is greater than ever before.
*or perhaps actually not.. perhaps that’s all we know because of our 1\ conditioning and our 2\ feeling of urgency.. but.. for (blank)’s sake
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war is the health of the state.. t
when you understand interconnectedness it makes you more afraid of hating than of dying – Robert Thurman
But societies that do not want to war with their neighbors can structure themselves to prevent it. Not having borders is an important first step. Often we can arrive at the truth by simply reversing the rationalizations of the state, and the line about borders keeping us safe can easily be decoded: borders endanger us. If there is a social conflict, violence is much more likely to break out if there is an “us” and a “them.” .. t Clear social divisions and borders prevent reconciliation and mutual understanding and encourage competition and polarization.
siddiqi border law et al
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This fictive community serves to foster identification with and thus allegiance to the central authorities, to obscure the conflict of interests between lower classes and the elite by framing them as being on the same team, and to confuse the good fortune or glory of the rulers with a good fortune shared by all; it also makes it easier for poor people in one country to kill poor people in another country by creating psychological distance between them.. t
sea world ness.. hari rat park law et al
On inspection, this notion that nation-states are based on shared culture and history is a fraud. For example, Spain created itself by expelling the Moors and the Jews. Even apart from this, without the central gravity produced by the state, Spain would not exist. There isn’t a single Spanish language, but at least five: Catalan, Euskera, Gallego, Castillian, and the dialect of Arabic developed in Morocco and Andalucia. If any of these languages were subject to careful scrutiny, more fractures would appear. The Valencians might say, not without reason, that their language is not the same as Catalan, but if you put the seat of government in Barcelona you would get the same suppression of Valenciano that the Spanish government employed against Catalan.
*Without the enforced homogenization of nation-stations, there would be even more variety, as languages and cultures evolve and blend with each other. Borders hinder this cultural diffusion, and thus promote conflict by formalizing similarities and differences. Borders don’t protect people; they are a means by which governments protect their assets, which include us. When the borders shift in a war, the victorious state has advanced, staking its claim to new territory, new resources, and new subjects. We are plunder — potential cannon fodder, taxpayers, and laborers — and borders are the walls of our prison.. t
begs idiosyncratic jargon ness.. nika on idio jargon ness et al
Even without borders, there may occasionally be clear differences in the ways societies organize — for example, one may attempt to conquer a neighbor or maintain the oppression of women. But decentralized, borderless societies can still defend themselves from aggression. A community with a clear sense of its autonomy does not need to see an invader cross an imaginary line in order to notice aggression. *People fighting for their freedom and their own homes fight fiercely and are capable of organizing spontaneously. If there were no governments to fund military complexes, those fighting defensive campaigns would usually enjoy the advantage, so it wouldn’t pay to go on the offensive. When European states conquered the rest of the world, they enjoyed certain decisive advantages, including unprecedented population density and technologies their victims had never seen before. These advantages existed at a certain historical moment, and they are no longer pertinent. Communication is now global, population density and resistance to disease are more evenly distributed, and the popular weapons necessary for waging effective defensive warfare against the most technologically advanced of armies — assault rifles and explosives — are available in most parts of the world and can be manufactured at home. In a future without government, aggressive societies would be disadvantaged.
*this is why i do what i do.. while they’re fighting (hopefully very shot temp – if we leap).. we are getting a legit way out ready
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8 – the future
a diverse mix of horizontalism, indigenism, autonomism, and anarchism have come to the foreground in all the exciting social rebellions of the last decade — the popular uprisings in Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico, the autonomen in Italy, Germany, and Denmark, the students and insurgents in Greece, the farmers’ struggle in Korea, and the antiglobalization movement that united countries around the world. These movements have a chance of abolishing the state and capitalism amidst the crises of the coming years.
suggested cities ness et al
But some people fear that even if a global revolution did abolish the state and capitalism, these would inevitably reemerge over time. This is understandable, because *statist education has indoctrinated us to believe the myths of progress and unilineal history — the idea that there is only one global narrative and it led inexorably to the ascendancy of Western civilization. In fact, no one knows exactly how the state developed, but it is certain that it was neither an inevitable nor irreversible process. Most societies never voluntarily developed states, and perhaps as many societies developed states and then abandoned them as have kept them. From the perspective of these societies, the state may appear to be **a choice or an imposition rather than a natural development. The timeline we use also affects our perspective. For tens of thousands of years humanity had no use for states, and after there are no more states it will be clear that they were an aberration originating in a few parts of the world that temporarily controlled the destiny of everyone on the planet before being cast off again.
*dawn of everything (book) ness.. graeber make it diff law.. et al.. black science of people/whales law et al
**decision making is unmooring us law.. spinach or rock ness.. et al.. need: imagine if we ness
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Modern societies with the collective memory of bureaucratic techniques could redevelop a state much more quickly, but we have the advantage of knowing where that path leads and *being aware of the warning signs. After having fought hard to win their freedom people would have plenty of **motivation to stop the reemergence of the state if it were occurring anywhere near them.
**even deeper.. imagine if we had a legit global re\set.. sans any form of m\a\p.. sans all the *red flags
Fortunately, an anarchist society is its own reward. Many stateless societies, after colonial contact, have had the opportunity to join a hierarchical society and yet continue to resist, such as !Kung who continue to live in the Kalihari desert despite the efforts of the Botswana government to “settle” them.
this is why a nother way would/could work.. if we org around legit (deeply embedded in all of us) needs.. then .. not even about reward ness or joining ness or resist ness.. just about ie: non hierarchical listening to self/others/nature
There are also examples of long-lasting anti-authoritarian social experiments that *thrive within statist society. In Gloucestershire, England, Tolstoyan anarchists founded the Whiteway Colony on 40 acres of land in 1898. After they bought the land, they burned the property deed on the end of a pitchfork. Accordingly, they had to build all their houses themselves since they could not obtain mortgages. Over a hundred years later, this pacifist-anarchist commune still exists, and some of the current inhabitants are descendants of the founders. They make **decisions in a general assembly and share a number of communal facilities. At times, Whiteway has housed refugees and conscientious objectors. It has also housed a number of cooperative ventures such as a bakery and a handicrafts guild. Despite the external pressures of capitalism and the hierarchical relationships reproduced by statist society, Whiteway remains egalitarian and anti-authoritarian.
*oh my.. red flags.. ie: *decision making is unmooring us law et al
Across the North Sea, in Appelscha, Friesland, an anarchist village celebrated its 75th year in 2008. Currently composed of caravans, campers, and a few permanent buildings, the Appelscha site has been active in the anarchist and anti-militarist movements since the priest Domela Nieuwenhuis left the church and began **preaching atheism and anarchism. A group of workers began gathering there and soon acquired land, on which they have held yearly anarchist gatherings every Pentecost. Hearkening back to the socialist temperance movement, which recognized alcohol as a crippling plague on workers and a form of bondage to employers who sold liquor from company stores, the camp is still alcohol free. In 2008, 500 people from all over the Netherlands as well as Germany and Belgium attended the yearly anarchist gathering at Appelscha. They joined the anarchists who live there year-round for a weekend of workshops and ***discussions on subjects including pacifism, animal liberation, the anti-fascist struggle, sexism within the movement, mental health, and the campaign that kept the Olympics out of Amsterdam in 1992. There were ****children’s programs, presentations on the long *****history of the camp, communal meals, and enough enthusiasm in the air to promise another generation of anarchism in the region.
more.. red flags.. ie: *david on creative refusal ness as energy/time suck.. **people telling other people what to do ness.. ***public consensus always oppresses someone(s).. dave’s campfire analogy.. gathering in a space ness.. ****any form of m\a\p.. black science of people/whales law.. *****history ness et al
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The idea that the state will inevitably reemerge over time is another of these hopelessly eurocentric fantasies in which Western culture *indoctrinates people. Dozens of indigenous societies around the world **never developed states, they thrived for thousands of years, they have never surrendered, and when they finally triumph ***against colonialism they will cast off the impositions of white culture, which includes the state and capitalism, and ****revitalize their traditional cultures, which they still carry with them. Many indigenous groups have experience going back hundreds or even thousands of years of contact with the state, and at no point have they voluntarily surrendered to state authority. Western anarchists have much to learn from this persistence, and all people from Western society should take the hint: *****the state is not an inevitable adaptation, it is an imposition, and once we learn how to defeat it for good, we will not let it come back
*any form of m\a\p does that.. and if so.. then **they did to a degree (aka: still in sea world).. if ***againsting et al.. ****need a legit diff song
*****yeah that (dawn of everything (book) ness et al).. but thinking we need to defeat it and not let it come back is a cancerous distraction.. we need to let go of irrelevant s and try a legit nother way
gershenfeld something else law et al
Anarchist societies will face problems we cannot possibly foresee now, just as they will encounter difficulties we might predict but be unable to solve without the historical laboratory revolution provides..t But one of the many errors of the state is the neurotic supposition that society is perfectible, that it is possible to craft blueprints that provide for all problems before they occur. Favoring laws over case-by-case evaluation and common sense, maintaining a standing army, granting the police emergency powers on a permanent basis — all these stem from the paranoia of statism.
this is huge.. and we’re missing it.. with the same song ness of history ness.. need a way out sans any form of m\a\p
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Making Anarchy Work
There are a *million ways to go about attacking the interconnected structures of power and oppression, and creating anarchy. Only you can decide which paths to take. **It’s important not to let your efforts be diverted into any of the channels that are built into the system to recuperate and neutralize resistance, such as requesting change from a political party rather than creating it yourself, or allowing your efforts and creations to become commodities, products, or fashions. ***To free ourselves, we need to regain control over every aspect of our lives: our culture, our entertainment, our relationships, our housing and education and healthcare, the way we protect our communities and produce food — everything. Without getting isolated in single-issue campaigns, ****figure out where your own passions and skills lie, *****what problems concern you..t
******and your community, and what you can do yourself. At the same time, stay abreast of what others are doing, so you can build mutually inspiring relationships of solidarity.
*attacking ness is a red flag
**oi – attacking is an ie of this.. built into system ness.. need – hari rat park law et al
***oi.. to free ourselves need a legit re\set.. sans any form of m\a\p..
****aka: your art.. so rather.. let’s try imagine if we ness.. and legit trust all 8b of us with that
*****need itch-in-the-soul.. curiosity over decision making.. not the spinach or rock of ‘what problems’ ness
and *****this (aka: maté trump law) too.. will keep keeping us from us
imagine if we just focused on listening to the itch-in-8b-souls.. first thing.. everyday.. and used that data to augment our interconnectedness.. we might just get to a more antifragile, healthy, thriving world.. the ecosystem we keep longing for..
what the world needs most is the energy of 8b alive people
*Anarchy thrives in the struggle against domination, and wherever oppression exists, resistance exists also. These struggles do not need to call themselves anarchist to be breeding grounds for subversion and freedom. What is important is that we support them and make them stronger. **Capitalism and the state will not be destroyed if we consign ourselves to creating wonderful alternatives. Once upon a time the world was full of wonderful ***alternatives and the system knows quite well how to conquer and destroy these. Whatever we create, we ****must be prepared to defend.
*oi.. if that’s true.. then not legit free
**if thinking destroy ness.. will never get legit alts
***to me.. everything to date has been a degree of same song.. nothing legit alt yet..
****huge red flag
No one book is enough to explore all the possibilities of anarchist revolution. Here are several others you might find helpful.
rec reading – emma goldman.. living my life
_________
_________
_________
_________
- anarch\ism
- accidental anarchist
- anarchism and other essays
- anarchist library
- anarchists against democracy
- anarchy after leftism
- anarchy works
- enlightened anarchy
- fragments of an anarchist anthropology
- graeber anarchism law
- inventing anarchy
- is anarchism impossible
- kevin on anarchism w/o adj
- on anarchism
- post scarcity anarchism
__________
_________
be you. 